


Miraculous Chara

by Child_of_the_Fae



Series: Miraculous Chara [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Shugo Chara!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7841605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Child_of_the_Fae/pseuds/Child_of_the_Fae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she was 7 Marinette's Heart Egg hatched into a Guardian Character named Madeline, when she was 10 she found other children with Guardian Characters, when she was 14 Madeline went back into her egg and didn't come out, and when she was 15 she became the Miraculous Ladybug.<br/>But Marinette's different lives come to a confrontation when Hawkmoth discovers the existence of Heart Eggs and begins to use them for his own purpose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return to the Roost

Mariette was babysitting Manon again, another one of her ‘couldn’t say no’ moments, and she was currently trying to get Manon to settle down, which was a little hard when the young girl was determined to explore everything.  
“Manon, careful!” Marinette exclaimed, just managing to stop a lamp that the girl had knocked from falling over.  
Eventually, Marinette managed to get Manon to calm down in front of the TV, leaving her to tidy up the young girl’s mess.  
“What’s this?” Manon asked as Marinette almost finished tidying.  
Marinette turned to see Manon holding a book, the book itself was obviously handmade with a cardboard cover with crayon drawings and held together by twine.  
“It’s an old book I made with some friends when I was younger.” Marinette told Manon.  
“Can you read it to me?” The young girl asked.  
“Well…” Marinette was unsure, it wasn’t actually a story book.  
“Please.” Manon gave her the babydoll eyes.  
“Please, not the babydoll eyes.” Marinette pleaded, which only led to them intensifying.  
Marinette sighed in defeat, she took the book and sat down, Manon quickly plonking herself on Marinette’s lap. Marinette opened the book and began reading.  
“‘All children hold an egg inside their soul, the egg of our hearts, our would-be selves. Yet unseen.’”  
The book showed an egg with a yellow heart with wings either side on it.  
“‘These Heart Eggs reside in our soul, created from our dreams and wishes, holding all of our potential. And every so often, in times of great emotion and desire, our Heart Eggs shall emerge from within us to bring out our potential.’”  
The next picture showed a faceless child cradling the egg in front of their chest.  
“‘And these Heart Eggs can hatch into our Guardian Characters, our would-be selves, who we have the potential to be.’”  
The next picture showed the egg split in two with a small person in between the two pieces.  
“‘Guardian Characters can perform something with their owners called ‘Character Change’, this is where the Character can cause their owner to take on the personality and abilities of their would-be self.’”  
The next picture showed a faceless child with the small person next to them, doing some unseen activity.  
“‘Our Heart Eggs are precious, but they can be fragile. If a child gives up on becoming their would-be self, if they cast aside the dreams of who they want to be, their Heart Egg shall gain an X on it, becoming an X-Egg.’”  
The next picture showed a black egg with a white X on it.  
“‘With an X-Egg the child will see their dreams as ‘useless’ and unobtainable. And if a child gives in to these depressing thoughts too much, then the X-Egg can hatch into an X-Character, who has the potential to cause much chaos.’”  
The picture showed the X-Egg broken in half with a completely black person with a red X on their head between it.  
“Can something be done about the X-Egg?” Manon asked Marinette.  
“‘X-Eggs do have the potential to become Heart Eggs again.’” Marinette continued reading. “‘There are a few magical items that purify the negativity of a child’s heart and return their dreams to them.’”  
The next picture showed a padlock and a key with four hearts on each arranged in a four-leafed clover pattern.  
“‘And some children, with the help of their Guardian Character, can use their abilities to purify an X-Egg, as their would-be self can be about obtaining dreams or helping others.’”  
The final picture showed the X-Egg being turned back into a Heart Egg.  
“Do I have a Heart Egg?” Manon asked her babysitter.  
“I’m certain you do.” Marinette said tapping Manon on the chest. “It resides in here for when you need it.”  
Manon looked down at her chest, as if her Heart Egg would suddenly emerge.  
“Do you have a Heart Egg?” She then asked.  
Marinette smiled. “I do. But she’s not in here anymore.” She tapped her own chest with a wink.  
“Marinette, Mrs Chamack is here!” Marinette’s mother called from downstairs.  
“Come on, let’s go meet your mum.” Marinette said, taking Manon downstairs.  
After Manon went home with her mum, Marinette went back upstairs to her room and found Tiki reading her book.  
“Marinette, did you really make this?” Tiki asked.  
“I only made the book itself and the drawings, another person did the writing. It was a group project to help new-borns.” Marinette explained.  
“New-borns? So, you really do have a Guardian Character?”  
Marinette supposed she should be surprised that Tiki knew about Guardian Characters, since she’d been about for so long.  
“Yeah.” Marinette admitted.  
“Then where is she? Why haven’t I met her?” Tiki asked, remembering the Marinette told Manon that her Heart Egg wasn’t in her soul anymore.  
Marinette stood and went over to a box that lay in the corner of her desk, she opened it to reveal a mound of scraps of fabric, she gently moved the scraps of fabric around to show a large egg. The egg was pink with a large piece of lace around the middle with a pair of scissors, a needle and measuring tape on the front for the pattern.  
“One day, not that long before I met you, she went back inside her egg and didn’t come out.” Marinette explained with a sad sigh.  
She took her Heart Egg out of the box and cradled it gently in her hands.  
Tiki flew down to the Egg and put her tiny hand on it, feeling the warmth and life inside.  
“Who is she?” Tiki asked.  
“Her name is Madeline.” Marinette said with a smile. “She is my desire to be a fashion designer.”  
Marinette paused, as if waiting for something, before letting out another sad sigh.  
“This is usually the point where she’d correct me and say, ‘not just any fashion designer, the greatest fashion designer in the world’.  
Tiki smiled, it sounded like Marinette’s Guardian Character fit her to a T. She decided to impart some wisdom that she had learned about Guardian Characters over her long life.  
“Don’t worry, Marinette. When Chara’s go back into their Eggs, it usually means they’re not needed as much anymore, that their child is well on their way to becoming their would-be self.” She said.  
Marinette smiled again. “Madeline said something similar before she went back into her egg. I was confused when she said it, but your explanation makes more sense. So, is Chara another way of saying Guardian Character?”  
Tiki nodded. “It’s the shortened down version. Makes it quicker to say.” She said.  
“Oh yeah. I’ve heard some of the others using it.”  
“Others?”  
“Yeah. Other Guardian…or Chara holders. There’s a place where we usually meet up, but I haven’t gone back that much since Madeline went back into her Egg.”  
“Why don’t you go now?” Tiki suggested.  
“I don’t know, it hasn’t really felt right.” Marinette said.  
“Come on, please.” Tiki pleaded. “Just because Madeline’s in her Egg doesn’t mean you have to not go.”  
“Alright.” Marinette gave in.  
“Yay!” Tiki said, flying into Marinette’s purse.  
Marinette sighed and picked up her purse, she was about to put Madeline’s Egg back into the box but made a last minute decision and put it in her purse alongside Tiki.  
Marinette then left the house with a goodbye to her parents.

* * *

 Marinette walked down a familiar street, one that she hadn’t walked in quite a while, but she knew the rout off by heart. As she walked Marinette remembered the first time she was led down this road and to the place she was going.  
(Flashback)  
“If you believe, you must be big, in order to be tough,  
Then you should get to know me, I’ll teach you other stuff!  
I’m Madeline, I’m Madeline  
I may be very small  
I’m Madeline, I’m Madeline  
But inside, I’m tall!” A tiny floating person sang.  
The tiny person had straight red hair down to her shoulders, had big blue eyes, and wore a beret, dress and shawl all in blue.  
A ten-year-old Marinette walked towards the park, trying to ignore her Guardian Character’s singing.  
“I regret ever introducing her to that cartoon.” Marnette mumbled.  
Marinette had discovered the cartoon about the small school girl and found it funny that she shared the same name as her Guardian Character, so she introduced her to the cartoon and Madeline was hooked. Now Madeline’s favourite thing was to sing the cartoon’s into song over, and over again. It wasn’t that the song was bad, in fact Marinette quite liked it herself, or that Madeline was a bad singer, but there is only so many times you can listen to something before it starts to grate on your nerves.  
“Useless.”  
Marinette and Madeline stopped and looked around for the source of the sudden voice, they could help but notice the overwhelming sadness in that single word.  
“Useless.” The voice chimed again.  
“Over there!” Madeline pointed to the sky.  
Marinette looked to where Madeline was pointing and gasped when she saw a black egg with a white X on it floating in the air.  
“Is that a Heart Egg?” Marinette questioned her Guardian Character.  
“It is, but it’s so dark.” Madeline said.  
The Egg then floated off.  
“Hey, wait!” Marinette called, chasing after the Egg.  
The Egg eventually stopped and turned to them.  
“Useless!” It cried.  
The Egg then released some sort of energy that knocked Marinette and Madeline backwards.  
Marinette covered held her arms out in front of her as the Egg came toward them.  
“Hey!”  
Marinette and Madeline looked over to the source of the voice to see a girl quite a few years older than Marinette somehow standing on a lamppost, she was dressed normally except for a pair of aviator goggles that sat on her head and a whip she held in her hand.  
“Useless.” The Egg turned its attention to the new girl.  
The Egg launched the same energy attack at the girl, who smirked and jumped high into the air off the lamppost and somehow landed on the ground seemingly fine. The girl then attacked with her whip, it wrapped tightly around the egg, which started flying around erratically trying to escape.  
“Oh no you don’t.” The girl said, giving her whip a sharp jerk, causing the egg to come towards her.  
The girl caught the egg and it seemed to go quiet and still, she unwrapped it from her whip and put it in the bag she had with her.  
“Are you alright?” The girl then turned to Marinette, who was still on the ground, offering her hand.  
Marinette took the hand and was pulled to her feet. “I’m fine.” She responded.  
“You were amazing.” Madeline said to the girl.  
“Thanks.” The girl responded.  
Marinette and Madeline were shocked, having not expected her to respond to Madeline since no one but Marinette had ever seen the Guardian Character.  
The girl laughed at their shocked faces. “What? You’re not the only one with a Guardian Character, you know.”  
At that moment, a small person popped out from the hood of the girl’s jacket, they looked like an aviator piolet complete with the goggles, hat and long black scarf that constantly moved behind it in a non-existent wind.  
“Wow, you have one too?” Marinette asked.  
“Yep. This your first time meeting someone else with a Guardian Character?” The girl replied, the goggles and whip suddenly disappearing.  
“Yes.”  
“Well, my name’s Reine. And this is Fern.” The girl introduced herself and her Guardian Character.  
“I’m Marinette, and this is Madeline.” Marinette replied. “What is that thing? And how did you do that, landing with being hurt” She pointed to Reine’s bag where the strange Egg was.  
“That was an X-Egg, it’s basically a corrupted Heart Egg.” Reine replied. “As for how I took it down. Guardian Characters don’t just help their children achieve their highest potential, they can give a little more power.”  
“Okay?” Marinette was confused.  
“I can see you’re confused. But I’m not exactly the best to explain everything to you. How about I take you to meet some others like us? There’s someone there who’ll do a better job at explaining everything.”  
“I’m not supposed to go with strangers.” Marinette said warily.  
“If you feel like you’re in any trouble, I think Madeline can help you out of it. And I swear that there won’t be any trouble, Guide’s honour.”  
Reine put her right hand up with the pinkie folded down and the thump touching the tip of the pinkie in a salute.  
“Shouldn’t that be ‘scout’s honour’?” Marinette questioned.  
“Yes. But I’m in the Girl Guides, not the Scouts.” Reine said.  
Reine began walking off. “You don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to.” She called over her shoulder.  
Marinette debated her choices before realising that in her chase of the X-Egg she had gotten herself lost, so she decided to follow Reine.  
The two didn’t walk for long before they came to a stop in front of a set of joined houses.  
Reine held out her arm as if to present the houses. “Welcome to- “  
(Flashback end)  
“The Roost.” Marinette said, standing in front of the set of houses.  
The houses had a front garden surrounded by a fence, the garden had various plants growing in it and a swing set and other play equipment. Though the buildings were made to be separate, a single person had bought them all and then knocked down the walls separating them to create one large building that was created for one purpose. A place for those with Guardian Characters to gather.  
Marinette walked to the main door and opened it, inside the building it was warm and welcoming with the walls being brightly coloured and covered with patterns and animals, the walls were done differently than the last time Marinette had been here but that wasn’t a surprise considering how often the children would paint over them. She could hear the chatter of some of the children that came here and their Charas.  
As she was walking she bumped into a familiar face.  
“Marinette!” Nino exclaimed happily. “Good to finally see you back here. Does that mean…”  
“Still asleep, I’m afraid.” Marinette cut him off.  
“Aw, bummer.” A voice said in sympathy.  
A Chara with oversized headphones around his neck and a backwards red cap flew from behind Nino and rested on his shoulder. This was Nino’s Chara, Chris, who represented Nino’s love for music.  
“Marinette!” A voice screamed with excitement.  
Marinette didn’t have time to brace herself before she was tackled into a hug. Her attacker eventually released her to reveal another girl with brown hair and green eyes who had a large grin on her face, there were three lines either side of her nose that looked like whiskers were painted on her face. The painted whiskers suddenly disappeared and the girl went from a large grin to a bit embarrassed, looking downwards slightly.  
“Sorry.” She apologised, pulling her Chara from where she had attached herself to Marinette without her noticing.  
“It’s okay, Ellie.” Marinette assured her.  
Ellie looked younger than Marinette and Nino, but the opposite was actually true with her being nearly a year older and being in the year above Marinette and Nino at school, she just had youthful features. It could also have something to do with the girl’s Chara, Poppy, who represented her desire to hold onto childhood. Poppy was dressed in dungarees and a red t-shirt, with long pigtails and a hairband with pink bunny ears.  
“It’s great to see you again.” Poppy said happily, looking around. “Is Madeline not coming out to play?”  
“Not yet.” Marinette told Ellie’s Chara.  
“Aw.” Poppy’s bunny ears flopped down in sadness.  
“So, what have you been up to? We haven’t exactly been talking at college.” Ellie asked, giving her Chara a chocolate button to cheer her up.  
“Nothing much has changed. I’m still working hard with my designs, I even won this derby hat competition by Gabriel Agreste. And I also have a new friend called Alya.” Marinette told her.  
“That’s great to hear.”  
“What, not going to tell her about Adrien?” Nino asked with a grin.  
Marinette began to blush.  
“Who?” Ellie asked, confused.  
“My best bud I’ve been telling you about. And according to Alya, Marinette has a c- “  
Marinette slammed her hand over Nino’s mouth.  
“Another word out of your mouth and I’ll sew it shut.” She threatened.  
Chris finished Nino’s sentence for him though. “She has a crush on Adrien.”  
Chris laughed as he flew up to dodge Marinette’s swipe at him.  
“What’s the big deal?” Ellie asked, not really understanding why Marinette was freaking out.  
Marinette stopped trying to get at Chris.  
“The big deal is that I can’t get out a normal sentence around him, every time I try I just shut down and can’t speak right.” She moaned.  
“And how oblivious is he to your affections?” Ellie asked.  
“Almost as bad as you are.” Nino said. “I’d say he’s just as bad but Marinette has yet to try and confess.”  
“Rub it in, why don’t yah.” Ellie pouted.  
“Wait, someone confessed to Ellie?” Marinette asked.  
“Apparently, this boy has been crushing on me for a while, but I thought all his attempts to charm me were attempts to annoy me.” Ellie explained with a groan. “He asked me out on a date but I thought it was another one of his jokes and told him to stop joking around and get lost.”  
“In her usual tactless way.” Poppy added.  
“Ellie didn’t even realise the poor guy was actually attracted to her until we told her, and even then it took a while for her to believe us.” Nino said.  
“Ouch.” Marinette said in sympathy for the unknown boy.  
“In my defence, being called ‘babe’ wasn’t exactly making the guy appealing.” Ellie said, arms crossed.  
“It was insulting.” Poppy said with a nod of her head, copying Ellie’s pose.  
“Anyway.” Nino said. “Let’s go to the art studio. We’re sort of blocking up the hallway.”  
The three had been standing in the hallway the entire time, and while no one had yet to try and get past them, there probably would be. They move through the building, passing the kitchen where a boy and his Chara were cooking and a living room where some children and their Charas were watching a TV, they went up a set of stairs to a room reserved for doing art.  
When they entered Marinette spotted another familiar face that she was surprised to see sitting at one of the desks, a Chara with a beanie and paint-splattered hoodie sitting on a pencil case next to him.  
“Nathanael?” She addressed the red-haired boy.  
Nathanael looked up from his drawing and his eyes widened with shock when he saw Marinette.  
“Marinette?” Nathanael said in his usual quiet and reserved tone.  
“So, you have a Guardian Character too?” Marinette asked, smiling.  
Nathanael’s Chara and flew over to Marinette.  
“Please to meet yah, I’m Blake.” He introduced himself confidently. “So, you’re this Marinette Nathanael talks about. You’re very pretty.”  
“Blake!”  
Nathanael snatched his Chara away from Marinette, his face as red as his hair.  
Marinette couldn’t help but laugh.  
“He’s nice. So, when did you come here? And when did you get Blake?” She asked.  
“Nathanael arrived not long after your last visit.” Nino explained.  
“And I got Blake about a year before I found out about this place.” Nathanael added quietly. “So, do you have a Guardian Character too?”  
Marinette nodded and brought out her Heart Egg.  
“Yeah, but she went back in her Egg a while ago and has yet to come out.” She said sadly.  
Poppy flew over to the Egg and gave it a hug.  
“I miss big sister.” She said sadly.  
Ellie took hold of her Chara and gave her a gentle hug before giving her another chocolate button to cheer her up, which did the trick as usual.  
“So, who told you about this place?” Marinette asked as she sat down, everyone else following.  
“I was sent a note, someone had seen Blake and left a note for me explaining about this place, and telling me to talk to Nino or Ellie.” Nathanael said.  
“A few others in this place got notes to. It was probably the mysterious person who owns this place.” Nino said with theatrics.  
“You don’t know?” Nathanael asked.  
“We’ve never seen her ourselves, but we know her granddaughter, who was actually the one who introduced me to this place.” Marinette said.  
“Reine. She’s the young woman who helps out around here a lot.” Ellie clarified.  
“Oh, yeah. I’ve met her.” Nathanael said.  
“She’s been trying to get him to make friends.” Blake said with a laugh. “But he still prefers to hide in here.”  
Nathanael went slightly red again.  
“Don’t worry, she did the same with me.” Ellie told Nathanael. “I preferred solitude because people kept teasing me about how I like things usually seen as just for children, but Reine kept pushing me to interact with others. I came to a compromise, its why I’m a social butterfly here but rarely interact with anyone at college, I’m just more comfortable and feel understood here.”  
“But the constant bothering did get annoying.” Poppy added.  
Nathanael couldn’t help but silently agree.  
“So,” Marinette said, deciding to change the subject. “Have you become victim to Marcel yet?”  
Nathanael’s groan told her that he had.  
“He’s worse with Nathanael because he’s a matchstick.” Nino said. “I’ve seen him avoid the kitchen and even run past it to avoid Marcel force feeding him.”  
Marinette winced in sympathy.  
Marcel was a boy whose main passion, and subsequently the theme of his Chara, was cooking. He aimed to one day be a great chef who owned his own restaurant and served culinary masterpieces to important people. Marcel’s time at the Roost was usually spent in the kitchen, making food for the other people in the Roost to eat. The problem was, that if someone happened to be passing by while he was creating a new dish and he spotted them they would be roped into being his guinea pig, and even worse was that if he saw someone as too skinny he would constantly try and get them to eat.  
“I’m not a matchstick.” Nathanael defended himself.  
“Still on the scrawny side though.” Chris commented.  
“Not scrawny, I’m svelte.” Nathanael mumbled.  
Marinette could help but laugh, as Nathanael’s response had been the same as a former member of the Roost, whose Chara was a purple cat and had been on the skinny and short side.  
“Keep telling yourself that, dude.” Nino said, putting a hand on Nathanael’s shoulder.  
Nathanael looked a little uncomfortable with how familiar they were acting with him, but he still felt a small smile grace his face at being included. Blake smiled proudly at his child, feeling that with this group, Nathanael would be on his way to expressing himself more, just like he had wanted when Blake had hatched. 

* * *

Marinette gave a happy sigh as she laid down on her chaise after getting home. Tiki flew out of her purse and gave her a smug grin.  
“Alright. You were right. I forgot how good it is to be there. The last few times I guess I was just too hung up on Madeline not coming out of her Egg.” Marinette admitted.  
“So, are you going to go back tomorrow?” Tiki asked.  
“Yeah. Even if Madeline’s still asleep, that shouldn’t stop me from seeing the others.”  
“That’s good to hear.”  
Marinette stood up and went over to her desk, she took her Heart Egg out of her purse and put it back into the box of fabrics after giving it a quick kiss, she covered it slightly with fabric to keep it warm before closing the lid. Inside of the box, the Egg wiggled slightly before settling.


	2. Something familiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old friend of Marinette's starts school

Lulu sighed as she sat in the back of her fancy car as her mother drove her to her new college, the first college she had been to in years. Lulu had been home-schooled for a long time, but her parents had decided to enrol her in a public school because they wanted her to make friends, Lulu didn’t actually mind this, what bothered her was that she was starting a few months after the beginning of the school year. Lulu hadn’t started at the beginning of the year because she and her family had been Japan again so she could visit Amu again, and they had only recently gotten back.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine. And maybe some of your old friends will be here.” Her mother said cheerfully, there was a glint in her eyes that Lulu missed.

Lulu didn’t know how to feel about this. The last time she had seen her old friends had been a while ago and things had still been awkward after she’d explained that she had been behind the Mystery-Eggs, she had apologised and they forgave her, but that didn’t mean their trust hadn't been shaken.

Soon, the car came to a stop outside the college building.

“Have a great day, sweetie. I’ll pick you up after school.” Her mother said.

“Thanks, mama.” Lulu said as she stepped out of the car.

In the courtyard many students were gathered before class began. Two such students were Chloe and a reluctant Adrien who was trying not to show his reluctance, Sabrina was standing to the side holding Chloe’s bag.

“Have you heard about the new student joining our class?” Chloe asked Adrien.

“Can’t say I have.” Adrien responded.

“Well, she’s the daughter of a really famous Chef and actress. And I’m sure she’s going to be the best of friends with us.”

Chloe then seemed to spot someone.

“There she is!” She pointed at a girl.

The girl was their age with long blond hair that curled outwards at the bottom, she wore a stylish blue dress with matching heels and a purple clip in her hair.

Adrien found himself dragged over by Chloe to meet the girl.

“Hello, I’m Chloe Bourgeois. But you probably already knew that.” Chloe introduced herself in her usual self-important way.

The girl raised an eyebrow.

“No, in fact I did not.” She answered.

Chloe looked stunned that this girl had seemingly never heard of her.

“But, I’m the mayor’s daughter, you have to have heard of me.” Chloe said.

“I’ve been out of the country for a while, so that’s probably why I haven’t.” The girl answered with a shrug.

“Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Well, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to get to know me.”

The girl hummed.

“I’m Adrien Agreste.” Adrien introduced himself.

“The model son of the famous fashion designer, nice to finally meet you in person. Lulu De Morcerf.”

Lulu regarded the two people in front of her. Nana had emerged from her egg and was floating near her shoulder, not that anyone noticed.

“Come on, let’s go find someone more interesting.” Nana said.

Lulu found herself agreeing. It was then she spotted a familiar face walking into the courtyard, she was slightly older but there was no mistaking the pigtailed black hair that almost looked blue.

Said pigtailed girl also spotted Lulu and gave a look of surprise.

“Lulu?” She asked.

“Marinette!” Lulu’s hair clip turned into a flower as she ran over to Marinette.

The two girls clasped hand and giggled with excitement.

“It’s good to see you again.” Marinette said.

“I missed you too.” Lulu responded happily as the flower reverted back to a clip.

“Do I get an introduction?” The girl who had been walking with Marinette asked.

“Oh.” Marinette said. “Alya this is my old childhood friend, Lulu. Lulu, this is my friend Alya.”

“Wait, don’t tell me you’re friends with her?” Chloe demanded Lulu as she came over.

“Yes.” Lulu answered, beginning to feel a dislike for the girl. “Since we were little.”

“But…she’s nothing. Her parents aren’t anyone important. How could you lower your standards?”

Lulu was getting angry now. Her clip turned back into the flower.

“Now you listen here, missy.” Lulu hissed. “Mari is my friend and has been for a long time, meanwhile we have just met and you have left a very bad first impression. I am not lowering my standards by being friends with her, but I would be lowing my standards if I were friends with you.”

With that Lulu turned away from Chloe.

Chloe let out a scream of frustration and marched away, Sabrina following close behind.

“Wow. You just put down Chloe, you have all my respect.” Alya said.

Alya then saw Nino heading to class.

“I have got to tell Nino about this.” She said, heading off to see her boyfriend.

“I better go make sure Chloe doesn’t do anything drastic.” Adrien said, walking off after Chloe.

“What’s the big deal?” Lulu asked.

“Chloe isn’t used to being treated like that. She’s the daughter of the mayor and likes to use his title and power to get what she wants.” Marinette said. “I hope Chloe doesn’t try anything against you, I’d hate for you to be Akumatised too.”

“Akumatised?” Lulu asked. “What’s that?”

“You don’t know what an Akuma is?” Marinette asked with wide eyes.

“A Japanese demon?”

“What about Hawkmoth? Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

Lulu just looked confused.

“Where have you been these last few months?”

“Back in Japan.”

“And how long have you been back?”

“A few days. Why? What’s happened since I’ve been gone?”

Marinette sighed. “Look, come to the Roost after classes are over, I’ll explain there.” She said.

“Why can’t you just explain at lunch?” Lulu asked.

“Because, something might hit a bit close to home for you.”

The bell rang and Marinette took that chance to leave their conversation there and go to class. Lulu followed close after. When Lulu got to the classroom she saw that the only available seat was on the third row next to a rather large boy with a black shirt, she sat down and class began.

* * *

Lulu stood before the Roost, debating whether or not to go in. It had taken her a while to find the place as she hadn’t usually gone there a lot before as she was only really friends with Marinette.

“Can we go in? It’s a bit cold out here.” Nana said.

Taking a deep breath Lulu pushed open the door and stepped inside. She was quickly greeted by Marinette, Nino, and a girl she recognised but could recall the name of, Marinette was the only one Lulu remembered though she did hang out with the other two as well when she did visit the Roost despite forgetting their names, she only remembered Nino’s name because they now shared the same class.

The three led her through the Roost to an empty room, it was full of armchairs and sofas with a bookcase in the corner. Marinette and Lulu sat on a sofa while Nino and the girl whose name she couldn’t remember sat in armchairs opposite them. Nino and the girl’s Charas appeared when Marinette brought out a box of cookies and placed them on a table, the two Charas and Nana flew over to the cookies and began munching on them, but Marinette’s Chara was strangely absent.

“Please believe that what we’re about to tell you is true, we’re not making it up even though it’s going to be hard to believe.” Marinette said.

“We live in a world where tiny little people that represent who we want to be can hatch from eggs inside us to give us special abilities and even change us into magical people exist.” Lulu said. “I think I’m open minded enough.”

“Open minded enough to believe that superheroes and supervillains are now real?” The girl asked.

“What?”

Marinette handed Lulu her phone which displayed a news article, Lulu’s eyes widened as she read about Ladybug and Chat Noir defeating one of Hawkmoth’s villains and watched a video of the duo in action.

“A few months ago, at the beginning of the school year this guy called Hawkmoth showed up and began creating villains to get these things called the Miraculous, which are owned by Ladybug and Chat Noir who are heroes who fight Hawkmoth.” Marinette explained.

“He made me a villain once, still can’t remember a thing about it, though that’s probably for the best.” Nino said.

“He made you a villain?” Lulu asked. She may not know Nino that well but she could never imagine him as a villain.

“Well, Hawkmoth’s villains don’t exactly get a choice.” Marinette tried her best to break it slowly to Lulu.

The other girl, however, had no such qualms. “When someone is feeling a strong negative emotion Hawkmoth sends these things called Akumas to possess and object the person is holding, which basically mind controls them into being villains by taking away their ability to see the wrong they’re doing, giving them powers and offering them revenge or to get whatever caused their negative emotions in return for getting Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses.” She stated bluntly.

“Ellie!” Marinette chastised the girl.

“What?” Ellie asked, not understanding what she did wrong.

Lulu, meanwhile, was processing what Ellie said. As she did she felt cold creeping through her as she drew up similarities to her actions with the Mystery-Eggs.

Ellie then recalled what Lulu did. “Oh, sorry.” She apologised.

“You’re nothing like him, Lulu.” Marinette told her friend.

“But I used people, when they had negative emotions, corrupting their wishes to try and draw out the Embryo.” Lulu said.

“And you were a kid who only wanted to help your mum and didn’t know better, like a lot of kids, just on a slightly bigger scale. Hawkmoth is a grown man who doesn’t mind causing destruction and pain to get these Miraculous things, probably for his own gain.” Ellie said. “You two are very different.”

Marinette and Nino nodded in agreement.

“Maybe you’re right.” Lulu agreed with a sigh.

“Hey, do you think this Hawkmoth guy knows about us.” Nana asked, munching on a cookie.

“I don’t know. When Hawkmoth turned me Chris wasn’t with me at the time, but he could have read my mind.” Nino theorised.

“I don’t think so.” Marinette said with a shake of her head. “If Hawkmoth knew about Heart Eggs you know he would try something with them by now.”

“And, we’ve just jinxed it.” Ellie’s Chara sang.

Everyone chose to ignore her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little foreshadowing of things to come.


	3. They did jinx it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawkmoth tries to Akumatise a girl, only to have someone beat him to the punch

Her name was Sarah, and her dream was to one day open a flower shop where she could sell all sorts of pretty flowers. But right now that dream looked to be very far away. The flowers she had worked so hard to grow and care for, making sure they got plenty of water and light, lay before her as a mess on the ground, her own fault actually, she had put the pot too close to the window’s edge and it must have fallen.

“Maybe mum and dad were right, maybe becoming a florist would just be a waste of time.” Sarah sobbed, trying to uselessly try her tears.

Elsewhere, a window opened to shine light into a dark room filled with white butterflies and a man in a dark suit and mask.

“Ah, dreams. They’re so easily shattered.” The man said.

The man held out his hand and a butterfly came to rest on it, he placed his other hand over the butterfly and dark energy was drawn between his hands, when he removed his hand the butterfly was now black with purple cracks. The butterfly then took flight.

“Fly away my little Akuma, and evilise her.”

The Akuma flew out of the window and across Paris.

Back with Sarah, unknown to her, a dark figure was watching her from close by, with a dangerous grin they reached out their hand towards the girl.

Sarah gasped as her emotions drained from her. Inside of her soul, where her Heart Egg lay, her Egg became black like an infection and a white X was emblazoned on it. The X-Egg emerged from Sarah and flew off.

The Akuma was just a few meters from Sarah when it stopped, its original destination no longer had the negativity, but a strong feeling of negativity the same as its original target just flew off.

“What?” Hawkmoth demanded from his lair.

Hawkmoth used his powers to see through his Akuma, when seeing through his butterflies Hawkmoth couldn’t see normally but he could see the basic outlines and energies of a person, and saw his original target just kneeling there, no trace of her original negative emotion, she then got up and walked back inside her home. He quickly ordered the Akuma to follow the new source of negative energy. When the Akuma reached it Hawkmoth could only tell it was there through the negative energy in was emitting, whatever it was was invisible to him, the negative energy was identical to the girl’s but even stronger.

“What is that?” Hawkmoth questioned.

The energy flew off again and Hawkmoth ordered his Akuma to follow at a distance, interested to see what this source of negative energy would do.

* * *

Marinette was walking to the Roost when she spotted Nathanael walking in front of her.

“Nathanael!” She called out, quickly catching up with her classmate.

“Oh, hey Marinette.” Nathanael said quietly, going slightly red.

“Are you going to the Roost too?”

“Yeah, the art studio is better than my bedroom.”

“I can relate. Before my parents turned the loft into my bedroom, my old bedroom was quite small and I couldn’t fit much of my design stuff in there, but the Roost was spacious and had the things I needed, so I regularly came here instead. It’s a good thing I did eventually get the loft, otherwise Madeline would have gone crazy about ‘small spaces stifling creativity’.”

“Oh.” Nathanael said, he then worked up the nerve to speak to her more. “What was Madeline like?” He then quickly cringed at what he said.

Marinette didn’t seem to mind though.

“She was always determined, and I was never allowed to doubt anything when she was around. And god help anyone who dared to challenge her.” Marinette said with a small laugh.

Marinette reached down and patted her purse gently.

“I sometime just carry her Egg around with me for a little comfort, and when I’m down it helps to remember what Madeline would be telling me if she were still awake.” She said, revealing that her Egg was in her purse.

Nathanael smiled at Marinette’s words, he did have to admit that when he was down Blake did help to cheer him up a lot of the time.

Blake suddenly flew out from Nathanael’s bag and stopped in front of the two, prompting them to stop.

“Blake, what is it?” Nathanael asked.

“Don’t you feel that? It’s so negative.” Blake said, looking around wildly.

“Oh no.” Marinette said, realising what Blake was sensing.

“Useless.” A small voice chimed.

The two teens and Chara looked up to see an X-Egg in the sky above them before taking off.

“An X-Egg.” Marinette said.

“That’s an X-Egg?” Nathanael questioned, having never seen one.

“Yes. And we need to catch it before it hatches!”

Marinette started chasing after the X-Egg, Nathanael and Blake following.

“I’ve heard that’s bad. How bad are we talking about?” Nathanael asked.

“Capable of causing damage, hard to contain and able to spread the feeling of uselessness. And considering Hawkmoth feeds of negative emotion…”

“That’d be very bad.” Nathanael finished for Marinette.

The X-Egg finally noticed Marinette and Nathanael chasing it, it stopped and turned to face them.

“Useless.” It chimed again.

“It’s not useless!” Marinette shouted at it.

The X-Egg didn’t want to listen and gave a blast of energy at them.

“Character Change!” Blake called out.

A pencil appeared behind Nathanael’s ear and the boy suddenly felt a lot braver, he dodged another energy attack and summoned a long paintbrush wand to his hand, he painted a circle in the air in front of him and the next attack was blocked by a circular shield.

Marinette took cover, wishing desperately that Madeline wasn’t asleep so that she could Character Change and help Nathanael.

Through his Akuma, Hawkmoth watched the confrontation, due to the limited vision of his Akuma he couldn’t see it exactly but he could still see the outlines and energy. He saw the two people follow the source of negative energy until it stopped and started unleashing energy at them, the two people dodged and one of them suddenly gained energy from another source near them that was similar to the negative energy but not at all negative and linked to the person, this person then used their increase in energy to block the negative energy’s attacks.

“What is going on?” Hawkmoth questioned.

Back with the fight, Nathanael was using his paintbrush wand to fling differently coloured blobs of paint at the X-Egg, but couldn’t manage to land a hit.

“I’ve messaged Nino, he and the others are on their way.” Marinette called from behind her cover, phone in hand.

* * *

 Sarah was in her bedroom, she looked sadly at the place where her flowers once were, her room felt more empty without it. After few minutes she managed to remove herself from her bed and go over to her bag, she decided to go to the store and buy another pack of seeds and plant pot to try again. But as Sarah left the house she saw her father looking at the mess where her flowers had fallen, she had thrown away the damaged flowers, the broken plant pot and most of the soil, but some soil still remained.

“And just what is this mess?” Her father demanded.

Sarah steeled herself and answered. “My flower accidently fell out of the window.” She said. “I cleaned it up as best as I could.”

“And just where are you going now?”

“To buy some seeds and plant pots to try again.” She answered truthfully again.

“You’re going to waste the money we gave you on more useless plants?”

“They’re not useless.” Sarah denied.

“Yes they are. Do you really think you can make a career out of growing and selling flowers? You need to let go of this silly dream and focus on a real career before you mess up your chances.”

With that, Sarah’s father went inside.

Sarah tried not to get upset, but she couldn’t help it. She ran until she reached a secluded area and began to cry.

“Useless.” She sobbed into her arms.

* * *

 Nathanael was having a hard time defending both himself and Marinette from the X-Egg’s attacks since he had never used his Character Change to fight before. He grunted as the X-Egg managed to hit him with an energy attack.

“Never fear, the cavalry is here!” A voice called out.

Nathanael and Marinette turned to see Nino and Ellie running towards them.

“Character Change!” Nino and Ellie called out.

Painted whiskers appeared on Ellie’s face and the eye-like symbol on Nino’s shirt changed to music beats.

“Lollypop hammer!” Ellie called as she held up one of her hands in the air and a giant lollypop almost as big as she was appeared, it dropped down and she caught and supported it in both hands.

“Vinyl disks!” Nino called as two vinyl records appeared in his hands.

Nino threw his records like frisbees at the X-Egg, it managed to dodge but then they came back like boomerangs and one managed to hit the Egg and knock it a few metres, Nino then caught his records as they returned to him. The X-Egg was about to attack Nino but had to stop in order to avoid Ellie’s giant lollypop from hitting it.

Over the next couple of minutes Nino, Ellie and Nathanael fought against the X-Egg, it was becoming apparent that the Egg was getting worn out, Nathanael managed to land a few hits, weighing it down with paint, they would soon be able to grab it.

Through his Akuma Hawkmoth watched the fight progress, he watched as two more people arrived on the scene and drew on energy from sources near them like the person already there, but their sources seemed linked to them, one was able to summon a hammer-like object out of nowhere and the other summoned what looked like frisbees and chucked them at the source of negative energy. The source seemed to be getting weaker from the constant barrage of attacks. But then, Hawkmoth felt the negative emotions of the child he had been originally targeting return, but rather than say with them it was sent to the source of negative energy, which grew in strength, until it changed in a way Hawkmoth couldn’t see.

Back with the fight, it was just about done when the X-Egg suddenly started to gain more power, it rose higher into the air. Then a crack appeared around it.

“Oh no!” Ellie and Poppy cried.

“It’s hatching!” Marinette exclaimed.

The X-Egg suddenly burst open and disappeared, leaving an X-Character in its place.

“Useless!” The X-Character said in a sinister voice.

The X-Character pointed at them and black-thorny vines appeared in front of it and started attacking them.

Nathanael managed to dodge out of the way, Nino used his disks to cut the vines before they could reach him, and Ellie used her giant lollypop to block the vines but then had to wrestle with them to stop them taking her lolly, she managed to get it back when Nino’s disks cut through the vines holding her lolly.

Despite their greater numbers, the tables now seemed to be turned now that the X-Egg was now an X-Character.

“What I wouldn’t give for some herbicide.” Ellie said, smashing a black flower that had been trying to eat her.

“I hate to say it, but at this rate we may have to…” Nino trailed off, not wanting to say it.

“To what?” Nathanael asked, avoiding black vines while firing paint globs at the X-Character.

“Shatter it.” Marinette finished for Nino from her hiding place, she was very close to revealing herself as Ladybug to take care of everything.

In truth, Nino and Ellie were holding back, Nathanael wasn’t because he didn’t not yet know the extent of his powers for fighting yet, but if they gave it their all it would most likely end in the shattering of the X-Character, which was bad since shattering it would mean the owner would completely lose their would-be self.

“There’s got to be something I can do without becoming Ladybug.” Marinette said to herself. “But I’m not much help without Madeline.”

“Don’t worry, Marinette. I’m sure they’ll be able to do it.” Tiki comforted her quietly from inside her purse.

Marinette spotted her Heart Egg next to Tiki and took it out of her Purse, she held it in both hands and gently stroked the design on the front with her thumb.

“But they might have to shatter it to do so. And if that happens a child will completely give up on their dream.” Marinette said. She then closed her eyes and lent her forehead against the Egg. “And I don’t want that to happen. I can’t let that happen!”

“Then what would you do about it?”

“Anything I can! I won’t let someone’s dreams be shattered!”

It took a second for Marinette to realise that it wasn’t Tiki who asked the question.

Opening her eyes, Marinette saw her Heart Egg rise from her hands, a crack formed around it and it popped open to reveal Madaline.

“Bonjour, Marinette. It’s been a while.” Madeline said. “Now, let’s go help out.”

Marinette was shocked but then gained a determined look on her face.

“Character Change!”

A blue beret appeared on Marinette’s head and a pincushion on her wrist.

Marinette snuck around the fight so that she was on the other side, she then used the element of surprise to attack the X-Character while it was focused on her friends.

“Thread net!” Marinette called her attack.

Marinette pulled some pins from the cushion on her wrist and took some thread she had in her purse that she infused with the power of her Character Change, she combined the thread and pins into a net and threw it at the X-Character. As the net bared down on the X-Character the pins enlarged to the size of knitting needles, the X-Character was then caught in the net and when it reached the ground the large pins stuck in the ground, effectively trapping the X-Character.

Without the X-Character controlling them the black plants attacking the others disappeared.

Nino, Nathanael and Ellie went over to Marinette as she picked the X-Character up from under the net and forced it back into its Egg, the X-Egg then went dormant in her hand.

Everyone released their Character Changes and their weapons disappeared.

“Marinette. Does this mean Madeline’s back?” Nino asked.

Marinette smiled and nodded as Madeline appeared beside her.

“Madeline!” Poppy cried out, tackling her fellow Chara with a strong hug.

Madeline smiled good-naturedly and patted Poppy on the head.

“Welcome back.” Chris said to Madeline, giving a thumbs-up.

Madeline gave a thumbs-up of her own.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Blake.” Nathanael’s Chara flew up to Madeline.

“Nice to meet you too.” She replied.

“Come on, let’s get back to the Roost.” Marinette suggested, holding up the X-Egg. “This one needs to be put with the others.” She then placed the X-Egg in her purse for safe keeping with an apologetic look to Tiki for placing it next to her.

Through his Akuma Hawkmoth witnessed everything, to a certain degree. He saw the powered-up people struggling against the changed source of negative energy, and then he saw the only person there who hadn’t been powered up and who had been hiding gain the similar but different energy like the others and use it to trap the source of negative energy. He then saw this new person take hold of the negative energy, decrease it to its previous state, and then make it disappear. Well, not disappear, there was a small niggling of negativity that told Hawkmoth that it was still there, just hidden from his sight. As the group of people began to walk off Hawkmoth had two choices, he could order his Akuma to follow them to try and learn more, or recall it to think about what he just saw, he chose to recall his Akuma, there were things to attend to in his life anyway.

* * *

 After Sarah managed to have a good cry she felt a bit better, she dried her eyes and began walking to a more populated area. As she walked she found herself faced with two choices, continue with her original plan of going to the shops, or give up on it like her father told her and go home. It was the smallest urge inside of her to prove her parents wrong that made Sarah head towards the shops.

“Maybe I can try one more time.” She said, though her heart wasn’t in it and she was still faltering on her decision.

* * *

 When the group reached the Roost they were all showing signs of exhaustion from the battle against the X-Character and walk to the Roost.

“Wow, we are out of practice.” Ellie commented, holding her side.

“Too be fair, we don’t usually deal with them hatching.” Chris said.

They were soon met by a young woman.

“Hi, Reine.” The four and their Chara’s greeted.

“I’m guessing you managed to get the X-Egg that Nino mentioned before he and Ellie ran out the door.” Reine said.

Marinette produced the X-Egg from inside her purse and handed it to Reine, the woman then turned around and started walking with the four children following after. They went up two sets of stairs until they reached the highest room in the Roost which was behind a locked door, Reine pulled out a key from her pocked and unlocked the door before going in with the others following her. As the only one of them yet to see the room, Nathanael’s eye’s widened when he saw what was inside, a group of X-Eggs floated aimlessly around the room. All of them shivered at the negativity they excluded.

The X-Egg Reine held floated out of her hands and joined the others.

“What are all of these doing here?” Nathanael asked.

“This is where we keep the X-Eggs until their owner manages to find hope in their dreams again and they purify themselves, or their owners simply grow up and they disappear.” Reine told him. “A few years ago we had two children that when they combined the power of their Character Changes they could purify one X-Egg a day, but they grew up and their powers went away. So, we just keep the X-Eggs here since we can’t leave them out there to hatch.”

Ellie and Poppy didn’t like the depressing feel of the room.

“It’s too depressing here, let’s go downstairs.” Ellie said, heading out the door.

The others quickly followed, Reine locking the door behind them.

“I say we’ve earned a reward. And we need to celebrate Madeline waking up.” Poppy said. “Let’s go for ice-cream.”

“I’m down for that.” Nino said.

“Sure.” Marinette agreed.

Nathanael nodded his head in agreement.

Poppy cheered as they headed back outside and towards the nearest shop that sold ice-cream cones.

* * *

 From a small distance away the mysterious figure who had been watching Sarah watched them, a grin on their face.

“Well, today was interesting.” They said, their voice male. “And informative.”

He brought out a phone, the screen showed a picture of the Akuma watching the battle against the X-Character.

“I wonder what he’ll do next.”

The man pocketed his phone. With one last look at the happy group he walked off.


	4. Strengthening bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette's happy about having Madeline back and Ellie has a serious talk with someone

The next day Marinette and Lulu walked to college together, their Chara’s having their own conversation while floating beside them, and Marinette was expressively describing the events of the previous day.

“Wow, I wish I could have been there.” Lulu commented, smiling at her friend’s seemingly endless happiness.

“And that’s not all. When I got home I had an explosion of new ideas now that Madeline’s back, I’ve filled up most of my current design book!” Marinette said expressively.

“And how much sleep did that lead to you missing?” Lulu said, knowing her friend and Madeline.

“Don’t worry, my…uh, mum made me go to bed on time.” Marinette said.

The truth was that it was Tiki who managed to snap her out of her creative frenzy to go to bed, which is where she and Madeline had butted heads. Once officially meeting when she had returned home, Tiki and Madeline had managed to get on quite well, sharing their love of cookies and pretty things. But whereas Tiki wanted Marinette to go to bed, Madeline wanted Marinette to continue her designing before her creative flow died out, it was a common problem for Madeline to care more about fashion than anything else and encourage sleepless nights and to ignore things in favour of finishing a design, thankfully Tiki had won out and Marinette had gone to bed.

“That’s a relief.” Nino said, coming up from behind them after hearing the last part of their conversation. “I still remember coming over to your house that one time, only to find you asleep on your floor after one of your ‘creative frenzies’.”

“That really happened?” Lulu asked.

Marinette looked bashful while Madeline looked unashamed.

“Yep.” Nino said. “Then again, our Guardian Characters can all make us do things we’ll regret. Like that time I didn’t go home for hours because of an open concert, really worrying my folks.”

Lulu nodded in agreement, as much as she loved Nana, there were time that she Character Changed that were embarrassing.

“Hey, what you talking about?” Ellie asked, coming over to them.

“How our Characters can make us do things we regret.” Nino said.

“Geeze, I think I’d win out of all of you. Poppy has made me do many childish things that are embarrassing, or took away the filter from my brain to my mouth.”

Ellie then spotted Nathanael. “Hey, Nathanael!”

Nathanael looked up at his name, then came over unsurely.

“Yes?” He asked.

“We’re talking about our Guardian Characters making us regret things. Has Blake ever made you do anything?” Ellie said.

“Not really. Though, there have been a few times I’ve made comments I usually wouldn’t after sudden spikes of bravery.”

Blake laughed from his place in Nathanael’s bag.

“I didn’t make him say anything he wasn’t already thinking.” He said.

I was a bit of a strange sight, seeing all five of them together in college together, as both Nathanael and Ellie preferred to spend their time at college alone, and even at the Roost they weren’t usually together all at once.

“Out of my way, Maritrash.” Chloe said rudely as she shoved passed Marinette rudely.

Sabrina went around the group rather than pushing through like Chloe.

Yesterday, Chloe’s actions would have gotten a reaction out of Marinette, but she was still overly happy about Madeline being back.

“You know, Chloe? Not even you can ruin my bad mood today.” Marinette said.

“What, did you find some money?” Chloe asked superiorly, a little put off by Marinette’s good mood.

“No.” Marinette said, sneaking a glance at Madeline. “I’ve just got something back that you can never hope to have yourself.”

Marinette knew that she was being a bit mean, insinuating that Chloe could never have a Guardian Character, even though Chloe had no idea what she was talking about, but there was a small satisfaction she felt at saying it.

Chloe looked insulted at the thought of Marinette having something she didn’t, but the bell rang and everyone ran off to class before she could demand what it was.

* * *

 

As classes let out for lunch Marinette walked out of her classroom with Alya and Lulu. She saw Ellie leaving her own class and got an idea, she knew that Ellie usually spent her lunches alone in some isolated place, usually with a book, as she ate, but with Madeline back Marinette felt the need to act on some of her impulses.

“Hey, Ellie!” Marinette called.

Ellie took a few seconds to stop walking after her name was called, not realising she was the one being addressed.

“Yeah?” She asked, turning around.

“You want to have lunch with Alya and I?” Marinette asked. “I packed some extra food from the bakery today.”

Alya looked confused at a girl she didn’t even know Marinette was familiar with being invited to have lunch with them.

Ellie contemplated the invitation, she did prefer to spend her time alone, but she guessed it was nice to spend lunch with others once in a while.

“Sure.” She said with a shrug.

As Nathanael was leaving the classroom Lulu decided to grab him as he went passed, seeing what Marinette was doing and deciding to do the same with him, leaving the boy looking very confused.

“We’re having lunch together.” She said simply.

“Uh, okay?” Nathanael said unsurely.

Alya decided that if Marinette and Lulu were bringing along others to lunch, she would too. And she saw the perfect targets straight ahead.

“Nino! Adrien! Want to join us all for lunch? Marinette brought extra food.” Alya called over to the boys.

Marinette drew in a sharp breath at the prospect of eating lunch with Adrien.

“Sure.” Nino said.

“Okay.” Adrien agreed.

The group went to the nearby park to eat their lunch, finding a picnic table big enough for all seven of them, though Ellie decided to perch on a low-hanging tree branch that hung above the table instead. Alya, Nino and Lulu had managed to manipulate it so that Marinette and Adrien were sitting next to each other, leading Marinette to have an internal freak out. Lulu took Marinette’s other side, with Alya and Nino together on the other side, and Nathanael sitting on the end, feeling rather out of place and wishing he could swap places with Ellie. The five Chara’s were up in the tree with Ellie, eating the food she had brought up with her to avoid Adrien and Alya spotting the food floating as they ate or some other action that would cause questions.

“Aren’t you worried about falling?” Adrien asked, looking up at Ellie.

“Nah.” Ellie said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Madeline looked down at Marinette and gave a shake of her head when she saw how nervous she was next to Adrien, she already knew about the crush but she hadn’t known it was this bad.

“A Character Change would give her the confidence she needed.” Madeline said.

“And probably cause her a lot of embarrassment.” Chris told her. “Let her be, it will work itself out eventually.”

“Probably.” Nana added.

“Maybe.” Chris said with a shrug.

Madeline looked unconvinced.

“Maybe they could use a little shove.” Nana said.

“Love is so confusing.” Ellie said to Blake.

“Tell me about it.” Blake said, thinking of Nathanael’s own crush on Marinette.

Madeline and Nana were about to fly out of the tree to try something with Adrien and Marinette but were stopped by Ellie.

“Oh no, you don’t.” She said quietly so as not to be heard.

The two Charas gave a small ‘humph’ but didn’t try again.

But there was a look in Madeline’s eyes that said that it wasn’t over.

“Adrikins!” Everyone cringed at the annoying voice.

Chloe ran over to Adrien and grabbed onto him, Sabrina was following close behind.

“I’ve been looking all over for you. Let’s ditch these losers and have lunch with me.” Chloe said.

“Excuse me.” Lulu burst out. “Who are you calling losers?”

Everyone sighed and waited for Lulu and Chloe to fight. Since coming to the college Lulu didn’t stand for any of Chloe’s actions towards herself or others, always willing to defend against the blond, and none of Chloe’s threats about using her father phased her as Lulu was even better at playing the victim card than Chloe whenever the teachers became involved. And Chloe certainly didn’t like that Lulu stood up to her all the time, even against the actions Marinette would just ignore.

“That’s what I’m calling you.” Chloe said.

“Well, I think you’ll find Adrien will disagree with you, considering he was happily hanging out with us before you came along.” Lulu shot back.

“Adrien would much rather hang out with me. Wouldn’t you, Adrien?”

“Uh…” Adrien didn’t know how to answer.

“See.” Chloe took it to mean yes.

“Why don’t you wait for Adrien to actually give an answer before putting words in his mouth?” Lulu said, crossing her arms.

Everyone else at the table watched the argument, their heads going back and forth like a tennis match.

“Actually, Chloe.” Adrien interrupted. “I was having lunch with them first.”

“But you’re having lunch with me now, right?”

Adrien looked back at the others at the table. Alya and Nino gave encouraging looks, Marinette looked at him with a sort of frown, Nathanael was looking at him blankly, he couldn’t tell how Ellie was looking at him, and Lulu was giving a glare that was daring him to lie just to spare Chloe’s feelings.

“Sorry, Chlo.” Adrien said.

Chloe gasped in horror, before stamping away, Sabrina scuttling after her. Lulu had a look of triumph on her face.

“Way to go, dude.” Nino said, leaning over to pat his friend on the shoulder.

Adrien gave them an unsure smile.

Ellie was strangely quiet as she had watched the proceedings, Poppy was too from where she sat on Ellie’s shoulder. Ellie’s eyes trailed after Chloe and Sabrina as they disappeared out of the park, a frown visible on her face.

“Ellie.” Marinette called from bellow. “Do you want some cookies.”

Adrien and Alya were confused for a second, as they had forgotten that Ellie was there.

Ellie locked the back of her legs around the branch she was sitting on and then tilted backwards until she was hanging upside down by her legs, she then took the offered bag of cookies off of Marinette but continued to hang upside down. All but Marinette and Nino looked at her strangely, not used to her doing these sort of things.

“Yeah, hanging upside down!” Poppy cheered, using her skipping rope to hang from the branch as well. “Come on. It’s fun.” Poppy said to the other Charas.

Eager to try, Nana joined Poppy in hanging upside down, the other Charas soon followed.

“You’re going to get dizzy like that.” Alya warned Ellie.

“I’m fine.” Ellie said with a shrug.

Ellie held onto the bag of cookies with her mouth as she reached back up to grab the branch with her hands, she then managed to haul herself upright back onto the branch.

“Tada.” She said after taking the bag of cookies out of her mouth, her face slightly red from being upside down and pulling herself up.

The others clapped for her and Ellie beamed at the praise.

Ellie opened the bag and popped one cookie in her mouth while handing the rest to the Chara’s, who quickly abandoned their activity in favour of eating.

“So, I’ve never seen you and Ellie hang out before, how do you know each other?” Alya asked Marinette.

“There’s this club we used to go to, we know each other from there.” Nino saved Marinette from making an excuse. “Lulu and Nathanael were part of it as well.”

“Oh, so that’s why you dragged them along.” Alya said.

“Nice too feel wanted.” Nathanael commented, head down as he drew in his sketch pad.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” Alya apologised, realising her wording could be taken the wrong way.

“It’s okay.”

After they finished eating the six teens at the table stood up and Ellie effortlessly jumped out of the tree.

“Where to now?” Adrien asked.

“How about we go to Marinette’s, since it’s the closest.” Lulu suggested.

Alya grinned and hung her arm around Marinette as the girl in question tensed.

“Yeah, let’s go to Marinette’s place.” Alya agreed with a grin. “That’s okay with you, right?” She asked her friend.

Marinette squeaked, her brain failing to work at the prospect of Adrien being in her room again.

“See, she’s fine with it.” Alya said.

Nathanael was also going red at the thought of being in Marinette’s room.

“Let’s go then.” Ellie said.

The group headed towards the bakery, once there they headed up into the living area after saying hello to Marinette’s parents.

“I just remembered, my rooms a mess. Stay down here while I clean up a bit.” Marinette said, running up to room as quick as she could, leaving everyone but Alya confused.

Once Marinette was inside her room she quickly went around hiding everything focusing on Adrien.

“Tiki, Madeline, help take down the pictures of Adrien.” Marinette said as she took down Adrien’s schedule.

The Chara and Kwami quickly went to work, pulling down the pictures and hiding them from sight. Soon all the pictures and the schedule were hidden and Marinette had changed her desktop background.

“You can come up now.” Marinette called.

The rest of the teens came up and found a place to sit in Marinette’s room. Alya looked around the room with an impressed look.

“You were fast.” She whispered to Marinette.

“What do we do now?” Lulu asked.

“Have you got anything to watch?” Nino asked Marinette.

The group sorted through Marinette’s collection of TV shows until they decided on one to watch until they had to go back to college. After two episodes it was time for them to head back.

As they walked Adrien joked about something from the show they had been watching and Marinette couldn’t help but laugh. Marinette had seemly become more comfortable and like herself around Adrien, which Alya and Nino wondered how long it would last.

Once the seven of them reached the main courtyard of the college they were met with the unpleasant sight of Chloe terrorising one of the younger students. It was clear the younger child was getting upset and if left like that, would most likely attract an Akuma, adding to the amount Chloe had caused.

“Leave her alone Chloe.” Marinette told the blond, going up to her.

Marinette marched up to Chloe with Lulu and Alya right beside her, Ellie, Nino and Nathanael positioned themselves between Chloe and the girl she was picking on, and Adrien decided it was best if he hung back slightly.

“Are you okay?” Nino asked the girl.

“Yeah.” The girl said.

“Don’t listen to her. She just likes to lower the self-esteem of others because she doesn’t have any of her own.” Nathanael said with a smile, finding it easier to talk to those younger than him.

The girl smiled at him.

As the rest of the group watched Marinette, Alya and Lulu argue with Chloe, Ellie observed Sabrina standing to the side waiting for if she was needed but looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Who’s Chloe’s friend?” Ellie asked the boys.

Ellie rarely spent any attention to people in school unless she already knew them, the only reason she knew who Chloe was was because the girl was so loud, so Ellie didn’t know who Sabrina was.

“That’s Sabrina, Chloe’s…lackey, for lack of a better word.” Nino said.

“Lackey?” Ellie asked.

“She’s less Chloe’s friend and more Chloe’s personal ‘yes woman’. Chloe constantly uses her, getting her to carry her things and dirty work, for the ‘honour’ of being her friend. Marinette tried to get Sabrina to stand up to Chloe once before, but Sabrina quickly reverted back.”

This struck a chord deep within Ellie, she suddenly felt a connection to this girl she only just found out about, she looked over to her Chara, who gave a nod of her head. What she was going to do would take courage, but she wouldn’t feel right if she didn’t do it.

“Maybe she just needs told from a different perspective.” Ellie said.

Ellie marched over to the bickering group. She grabbed hold of Sabrina’s arm and pulled her away.

“Hey, make-up-for-a-face, I’m borrowing your lackey.” She said.

Before Chloe could register the insult, Ellie had already pulled Sabrina away and out of sight.

Ellie dragged Sabrina into an empty classroom, she then let go of her and stood opposite her.

“So, what did you want?” Sabrina asked.

“I’m going to put this bluntly. You need to stop being friends with Chloe.” Ellie said seriously.

“What? Why would I do that? We’re friends.” Sabrina burst out.

“No. You may think you’re friends, and maybe you are in some little way, but you are just being used by her.”

“No I’m not.” Sabrina denied.

“Look. I know I can’t force you, but I’m going to tell you a little story instead.”

Ellie took a deep breath and steeled herself as she began.

“A few years ago I was relatively friendless, it was during summer and no one I knew from school lived near me. I would go out and make friends, but I never saw them again after the day I met them. But then something amazing happened, one of the friends I made came back to visit me the next day, asking if I wanted to hang out, I was so happy that I had a genuine friend.”

“I don’t see what this has got to do-” Sabrina began.

“I’m getting there.” Ellie interrupted. “At first everything was great, we frequently went places, she introduced me to her family and her other friends, took me out with her family for meals. But she started to expect a lot for me, we would organise times to meet to go places but she would show up an hour or so late yet still expect me to waiting, if I had my bike with me to go places she would expect to use it while I ran after her, she got me to clean her room a fair few times while she did nothing, and when I did something she didn’t like she would hit me. It didn’t hurt much and didn’t leave any damage, but the point was still there.”

Ellie could see that Sabrina was beginning to understand.

“But I still stayed ‘friends’ with her and trailed after her because I had no one else and was desperate for a friend, I chose to ignore her taking advantage of me. It wasn’t until my dad sat me down one day and told me how he didn’t think me being friends with this girl was good for me that I finally understood just how screwed up my friendship was, but one thing my dad didn’t try to do was ban me from seeing her, he knew it had to be my choice. And I chose to break off the friendship. It was just about the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and to this day I struggle to make friends because of the underlying suspicion that they’ll just use me, but I’m still better off than if I stayed friends with her.”

Ellie was crying a bit now as the emotions she had ignored came to the surface again.

“The reason I’m telling you this is because I want to do for you what my dad did for me. Your friendship with Chloe is unhealthy and will only hurt you in the long run if you don’t do something about it. Even if you don’t stop being friends with Chloe, please, for your own sake, find other friends.”

With that final part Ellie turned and left, heading off to the toilets to dry her face of the tears, Poppy patting her on the head and whispering about how she was brave.

Sabrina remained standing in the classroom for a good minute, trying to process what she had been told. She had been told before that Chloe wasn’t a good friend, but she never really listened to those people, or at least not for long, Chloe was her friend at she couldn’t just give that up, even if she knew Chloe wasn’t the nicest of people to others. But this was the first time that she felt so shaken, this person who she didn’t even know the name of had just told her something very personal in an effort to stop her from being friends with Chloe. As this girl had told her of her past, tears in her eyes, Sabrina felt a connection because of how similar it was to her own situation.

Sabrina eventually left the room and returned to Chloe, her friend had demanded where she had been but didn’t give her a chance to answer before going off to class, expecting Sabrina to follow, which she did. As Sabrina followed Chloe, the girl’s final words to her rang around in her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ellie is in the story because she's sort of a self-insert, Poppy is who I'd imagine my Chara would be, she can be blunt without realising it can hurt others, and she's an introvert like me. And her backstory of having a friend that used her is what really happened to me when I was younger, Sabrina's situation is similar to what happened with me which is why I added it.  
> So, since Ellie's had that talk with Sabrina it's no doubt going to have an effect on her. I'm currently debating on whether or not to give Sabrina a Chara, one that represents her desire for true friendship, she won't be part of the main story but I thought it'd be a neat addition. So, should I give her a Chara or not?


	5. Explanation

For those that have read this story and have been waiting for me to update, I apologise for not adding any chapters recently. I've been mostly distracted by my other story, Rise of Paonne and Renard Rouge, partly because that's the story that gets the most views and people wanting to read it, and partly because I enjoy writing that story more. And I probably won't be writing for this story until I finish Rise of Paonne and Renard Rouge. But once that is finished I will focus back on this story again.  
Honestly, when I started writing this I was a bit too enthusiastic with getting to parts of my story, leaving parts rushed and happing sooner than I originally planned, for example Madeline remerging from her egg wasn't supposed to happen so soon. And if I'm not careful I'm going to end up writing myself into a corner.  
Which is why I'm asking you if I should continue on with my current story, or if I should go back and rewrite the story with some different choices such as characters. And you can even voice some ideas for the story if you want The general plot of Marinette having a Chara, and Hawkmoth discovering and using X-Eggs will remain the same.


End file.
